Fergie Gets It Started

You know she has a killer voice and rockin' bod. But there's so much about the Black Eyed Peas' singer that remains a mystery...until now.

Fergie is larger than life when she's performing onstage with the Black Eyed Peas, but in person, the sexy singer looks positively teeny as she walks into New York City's Ono restaurant. After whispering a parting "l love you" to her actor boyfriend of two years, Josh Duhamel, the 31-year-old snaps her bedazzled phone shut and points out that she's wearing the same outfit she wore to her Cosmo cover shoot the previous day (a white tank top, knee-length black shorts and a newsboy cap). "I sometimes repeat clothes. See...I'm normal."

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Nice? Yes. Humble? Absolutely. But normal? Not even close. Growing up in the working-class city of Hacienda Heights, California, Fergie (nee Stacy Ferguson) was an overachiever from the start. After convincing her schoolteacher parents to let her join Karen's Kids, a children's group that sang and danced at malls, Fergie landed a part on Nickelodeon's Kids Incorporated when she was 8 and spent the next six summers filming the show — while earning straight As in school.

After graduating from high school, Fergie's charmed life took an E! True Hollywood Story turn for the worse. At 21, she released her first album with the pop trio Wild Orchid but over time began to loathe the group's sticky-sweet sound. As an escape, she fled to the edgy underground club scene and wound up addicted to crystal methamphetamine (also known as crystal meth).

Getting sober was a battle (that she won), and a chance encounter with the already-established band the Black Eyed Peas at a Minneapolis concert where she was making her last appearance with Wild Orchid also proved to be life changing. She'd been a fan of the group's hip-hop style, so she marched up to Will.i.am and told him she wanted to work with him. Eventually, she started singing backup vocals, and in 2002, she was asked to be a full-fledged member of the group.

Four years and two platinum albums later, Fergie is at the top of her game. She played a lounge singer in this past spring's flick Poseidon, and she'll be starring in an upcoming Quentin Tarantino/Robert Rodriquez movie. Right now, she's focusing on her first solo album, due out in September (the first single, "London Bridge," will be released this summer), and spending time with Josh. Here, she takes a time-out from her Black Eyed Peas world tour to give Cosmo the lowdown on her life.

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Cliff Watts

How will your solo album be different? It's going to show a more spiritual side of me. A few years ago, I wrote a 500-page life story, and a lot of what was in there will be in the album.

You've been through some really tough times. Is it hard for you to put it all out there? Talking about what I've been through is therapeutic. I don't want to be the poster girl for crystal meth, but it's very addicting, and people don't know just how addicting it really is.

How did you get hooked on it? I was unhappy in [Wild Orchid], and I was also in an unhealthy relationship. I don't want to say his name, but he's an actor. I was 24, and we had been together for a year and a half. He'd blame all the problems we were having on me, and I'd believe it. It just added to my insecurity.

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Did your bandmates know what was happening? Oh yeah. They staged an intervention, at which point I told them I was bulimic [to cover up for the fact that] I was only 90 pounds. I put up a whole front — I even took them to Overeaters Anonymous with me. I've never been bulimic in my life, but when you're a drug addict, you lie.

How did you kick the habit? I started going a little nuts and hit rock bottom. I called my mom and told her I had been doing crystal meth for a year, and I moved back into my old bedroom as a 25-year-old. I had collection agencies after me — I had spent all of my money.

What else helped you get your life back on track? I had to learn self-love, and I learned it through hypnotherapy. It's not some fruity thing — it's not like you're going to a psychic or something. We just talk. Sometimes she puts a box of tissues right in front me, and I let it all out. She's amazing.

Why did you change your name from Stacy to Fergie? It was when I was transitioning out of Wild Orchid. I wanted a new identity because I felt like a changed person. Stacy was a little bit too cheerleader for me at that point.

Having gone through all that, are you more confident? I'm as confident as I can be, but I still have my own insecurities. When people are saying you're pregnant every week [in the tabloids], you kind of wonder, Do I look fat? It hurts my feelings. It's one of my dreams to have babies, and I feel like these rumors will make it less special when it actually happens. My poor grandma is calling me every week to congratulate me! I will issue a big press statement when it happens.

There's also a rumor that you and Josh are engaged... That's not true either. I want to get married when the chaos dies down. I want to enjoy this part of my life. I want it to be romantic. I'm a huge romantic. I don't know if people realize that. I think they just see this tomboy on stage. I love to cuddle and make out and watch romantic movies and cry.

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What romantic things do you two do? We love to go on hikes. We don't go to the trendy hiking places because we want to be alone. We look at houses and beautiful scenery. We have a deep spiritual connection.

Do you live together? No, but I stay at his house and have clothes there. I don't have a house, so I go between Josh's, my mom's and hotels. Josh and I have a dog together though. Her name is Zoe, and she's a Silver Dapple Dachshund. She's so cute.

How do you keep your relationship strong when you're apart so often? We're on the phone all the time. He's my rock. We have a lot of trust, and we're supportive of each other. We've made a pact just to ignore all the rumors.

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Cliff Watts

Did you ever have a bad-boy phase? Yeah, but now I'm attracted to gentlemen. I like being treated like a woman. I'm old-fashioned — I like to have the door opened for me. By the way, Josh is a nice guy…but he's edgier than people think.

Is it true you dated Justin Timberlake? Yes. One my good friends was dating J.C. Chasez, and so we'd all hang out with *NSYNC. Justin and I would go out together and have fun and make out. We went to Hawaii together, but we were never serious. He was Mr. Right Now.

In Don't Phunk With My Heart you sing, "I wonder if I take you home, would you still be in love?" How do you feel about sex on the first date? I've never had a one-night stand in my life. I've always been the girl people think is more promiscuous than she is. I'm a big flirt, and I've kissed a lot of boys, but when I was single, I wasn't going out and having sex with people. I'm a very monogamous type of person. When I have a boyfriend, that's it.

"My Humps" is about using your looks to get what you want. Do you think women should do that? Hey, I've got a cute little booty, and I know how to work it. I think every girl should work what she has.

What have you learned about guys from being in a band with three of them? Men sit there and talk about girls' body parts for hours. I'll be like "You guys are no good for my self-esteem!"

But you have such a great body! A lot of people think that I have perfect abs, but it's so not true. My lower stomach is very hard for me to get in shape.

Is it hard to stay in shape on tour? I've been doing a low-fat, low-carb food-delivery diet for about a month, and that's given me some structure. When I'm around the boys, it's hard because they can eat whatever they want. I don't need to be eating pizza after the show. For a while, I started trying to go no-carb, and then I'd eat the cheese off the entire pizza, which is like 70 grams of fat! So obviously that didn't work. What I'm doing now — eating small meals — works for me. But that's not to say I still don't go out to a restaurant and over do it once in a while.

Which other female musicians do you really admire? I love Gwen Stefani. I give her props for being pregnant and on tour. I will not be doing the same. I also admire Lauryn Hill. These are girls who have been on tour with all guys, so we've gone through a lot of the same things.

Do you feel like you need a break from work? I just want to go to Jamaica with my boyfriend for two weeks! That's my dream…just to be by the beach.

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